Al Michaels had enough with the penalties Thursday.
While the Cowboys and Seahawks put on an offensive show in Dallas’ 41-35 home win on “Thursday Night Football,” it also turned into a ref show.
During the third quarter, Michaels —leading the Amazon Prime broadcast — had enough.
“We’re going to take the rest of the night off and let (referee) Clete Blakeman call the game,” Michaels said. “You buying?”
“Sure,” replied broadcast partner Kirk Herbstreit.
Michaels certainly had a reason to be frustrated.
For as entertaining as the shootout was, the incessant flags interrupted the flow of the action.
Blakeman’s crew flagged the two teams for a combined 19 penalties for 257 yards Thursday night.
To put that in perspective, the Giants only had 220 total yards of offense in their 10-7 win over the Patriots last Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
Michaels’ remark came during one penalty-fueled drive that helped Dallas cut the deficit to 28-27 a little more than halfway through the third quarter.
The first play of the drive featured Seattle being called for defensive holding, while a Seahawks interception later was negated due to offsides.
The Seahawks were then hit with another defensive holding call to void an incomplete pass to CeeDee Lamb.
Seattle later received a defensive pass interference call to void another incomplete pass on second down, and was hit with a fifth – yes, fifth – penalty on an incomplete pass on 2nd-and-13 from the 22-yard line due to illegal contact.
Dallas capitalized on those five penalties when Tony Pollard rushed for a six-yard score.
While Michaels has come under fire for his enthusiasm this season, it seemed most agreed with his view of the referees Thursday.
The Seahawks finished with 10 penalties for 130 yards, while the Cowboys’ nine flags totaled 127 yards.
The general audience may not care as much about flags next Thursday when the woeful Patriots visit the Steelers in what could be an absolute snoozefest.
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